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Verbal De-Escalation (podcast)

In this month’s podcast we will be looking at verbal de-escalation. What I mean by that is what we can do to calm people down, avoid unnecessary physical conflict, and “talk our way out”.

It’s not enough to simply give the topic lip service, as many do, with throw away lines such as “talk your way out if you can”. That’s like saying “punch hard” and expecting students to be able to punch well despite never having being taught punching or having practised it. There is huge skill set associated with talking your way out of situations that should not be ignored.

Training solely in the physical, and totally ignoring the vitally important non-physical aspects of self-defence, gives us the massive problem that all we have is a physical solution! We could therefore find ourselves in situations we should never have been in, unable to avoid situations that could have been avoided, and running the risk of physical harm (and legal problems) when there was a way to avoid the situation becoming physical. If we truly wish to adequately address the needs of self-protection then we need to include a lot more in our study and teaching than physical technique. Verbal de-escalation is one such element and I hope you find this exploration of some of the basics interesting.

This podcast also has some news and a competition related to my accent! Long time listeners will remember we had a similar competition a few years ago where I said a phrase in my normal accent and my local dialect to see if anyone could understand what I said. People still ask me about it years later so I felt it was about time we did another one. It also seemed appropriate for a podcast on talking! So at the end of the podcast you have the chance to win some books and DVDs.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and I’ll be back with more soon!

All the best,

Iain

NOTE: The download link for the podcast can be found underneath the player.